A parade with something to prove

Chicago's Mexican Independence Day Parade returned to Little Village aiming for the full 400,000 spectators it normally draws, after a year that tested the neighborhood.

Last year, fear thinned the crowd

Immigration threats tempered many of Chicago's 2025 celebrations. The parade went ahead, but the mood around it had changed.

Operation Midway Blitz

President Trump's immigration enforcement campaign targeting Chicago hung over last year's event, with raids a live worry for families deciding whether to go.

Watch from home if you need to

Organizers did not cancel. They told would-be attendees to do whatever felt safest, including staying in and viewing the parade from home.

United We Ride

The 55th annual parade ran under the theme "United We Ride: Stronger Than Ever," a direct answer to the year that came before it.

“United We Ride: Stronger Than Ever”

Little Village runs it

The Little Village Chamber of Commerce puts on the parade and calls it one of the largest in the Midwest.

Culture and cash register

Organizers frame the day as two things at once: a cultural celebration and an economic driver for the local businesses along the route.

26th Street fills up

Floats and marchers moved down 26th Street while spectators packed in behind metal barricades lining the route.

Horses at the arch

Riders on horseback processed past the Little Village Arch, the neighborhood's landmark gateway and the parade's signature backdrop.

A flag you carry together

Participants hauled a massive Mexican flag down the route, the kind of image that needs dozens of hands to hold up.

Trump's slogan, flipped

One participant carried a twist on a slogan popularized by Trump, turning the president's own language back at the enforcement campaign.